I've been in the IT industry since the time of the dinosaurs (ICL anyone?). I've written books about the Internet and networking, consulted for all sorts of companies, and been a contributor and columnist for Network World for 18 years (check out my Backspin and Gearhead columns). I created and co-founded Netratings (now wholly owned by Nielsen) and have CTO'ed for a couple of startups. I live in Ventura, CA. I do not surf.

Cold Fusion Gets a Little More Real [Updated]

The question “is cold fusion real?” has been around since 1989 when Martin Fleischmann and Stanley Pons, two of the world’s leading electrochemists, rather prematurely announced that they had achieved this phenomena in a test tube in their lab.

Cold fusion, otherwise called Low Energy Nuclear Reaction (LENR), is, theoretically, the fusing together (rather than a chemical reaction) of elements at “normal” temperatures such that they release more energy than is required to fuse them.

This is an idea that is incredibly appealing because if it could be achieved it would provide mankind with, again in theory, incredibly cheap energy. In practice, there could be drawbacks such as pollution and radiation but until cold fusion is actually demonstrated and developed, no one knows.

Hot fusion, on the other hand, is the process by which elements would be fused together at temperatures and pressures only found naturally in stars.

While hot fusion, yet again theoretically, would create more energy than it would to induce fusion the conditions required are so extreme that rather than a simple test tube it requires machines the size of houses and enormous supporting facilities that bring the whole project up to factory scale (see the National Ignition Facility). Hot fusion is also guaranteed to have radioactive waste products.

Unfortunately it turned out that the Fleischmann and Pons experiment was not reliably reproducible. In the academic fracas that followed, both men’s reputations were ruined and the field was quickly relegated to the domain of “fringe” science along with perpetual motion, telekinesis, and anti-gravity.

While mainstream science was apparently quite happy with this situation and went about spending billions of dollars on “hot” fusion (there are many who claim that cold fusion was systematically marginalized and deprecated by establishment scientists), a few “rogue” researchers continued with cold fusion research and, over the last few years, evidence has piled up that cold fusion may, in fact, be real.

I wrote “may … be real” because until recently the evidence looked promising but hardly conclusive.

I know that there will be a handful of people (the “believers” I wrote about some time ago) who read that statement and cry “lies” but the fact is that no one has yet demonstrated, definitively, that cold fusion or LENR exists in a form that is actually useful.

Since then just over a year has passed with Rossi having done a couple of unconvincing demos (the biggest and least convincing was on October 28 last year). I could go on at length about the endless news items about Rossi but the bottom line is that to all intents and purposes the E-Cat is still vaporware … it’s all still “jam tomorrow.”

As for the rest of the companies that have announced they’re developing cold fusion devices only one stands out: Defkalion Green Technologies, a company based in Greece …

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Well.. “believer” in what degree?? LENR/LENT/”cold fusion” has more real scientific backing than say “bigfoot” UFO’s or the paranormal. From “exploding wires” to cavitation the phenomena seems real . Certainly “believers” in this case are an order of magnitude above the others. Currently “at worst” you have an existing unexplained phenomena that need a LOT more $’s in research yet some “fringe” creativity is there as well ………. SPAARWAR/NASA/Mitsu. all are putting some skin in the game… I personally believe the “answers” are solved yet in a fragmented puzzle array. Do Brillion/Deflakon/Rossi have a “product”? To me the odds are stronger in their favor than someone selling a “hot fusion” Tokamac.. or even a Bussard reactor. Billions on a “proven theory” w/ little in practical use…

No way – these people are most certainly fakes. There is no such thing as fusion without radiation, and that’s what Rossi, Defkalion, etc are claiming. They are just fly-by-nighters. Remember that Rossi himself was previously convicted of fraud.

Look, we all want nice things like abundant energy, cures for major diseases, trips to other planets, etc, etc, but that’s no reason to go believing in snakeoil salesmen who would only take advantage of our hopes by deceiving us with cooked up science.

These people have failed basic tests like transparency, reproduceability, and peer review. We should definitely not trust in them, because all they want to do is make money while handing us lame excuses for their lack of credible procedures for scientific proof.

“There is no such thing as fusion without radiation” We don’t know what we don’t know. As with any new pioneering technology, books will have to be re-written what once was fact is now fiction, a few examples of this is ” The world is flat”, “ Heavier than air flight is impossible”.

Cooked up science? Like Mark commented “Doing what any GOOD scientist would do, investigate interesting things”. The same claims in these experiments have been made for over 20 years now yet the mainstream scientific community refuses to investigate or fund investigations. Why?

All they want to do is make money? Along with everyone else on the planet. As a matter of fact money is what drives most science today.

Jaysan: While there are many players in the alternative energy market who are, without doubt, out-and-out frauds, the topic is so big that some of them must be real researchers. A fraction of those claim results and will be mistaken for one reason or another while a smaller number will never find anything. An even smaller subgroup might hit pay dirt … My point is that to declare “these people are most certainly fakes” would, for now at least, seem too sweeping a judgment.

Mark, there are indeed various legitimate research efforts being undertaken on LENR, however none of the legitimate research groups are making extraordinary claims of large quantities of energy output like Defkalion or Rossi. Furthermore, the legitimate researchers are following the tried and true path to credibility through the scientific method of peer review and transparency. After all, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof, not extraordinary excuses – which is exactly what Defkalion and Rossi are trotting out. There is something wrong with the way these people and their supporters respond to inquiry and criticism.

That’s the age old confusion, it’s not nuclear fusion…it’s a process involving weak force nuclear interactions. Take a look at this video from the NASA Langley Research Center. http://youtu.be/42hrCRx1JJY